Harrisburg schools progress report: State takeover brings changes, but much remains to be done

It was mid-August, only a week before classrooms were opened to returning students, that teachers and staff members filed into the auditorium at Harrisburg School District’s John Harris campus, filling the hundreds of seats inside.

A ringing bell drew their attention to the front of the room and to Janet Samuels, the newly appointed district leader who’s been tasked with turning around decades of financial and academic underperformance.

Samuels addressed the cheering crowd, offering a promise: This school year will not be “business as usual by any stretch of the imagination,” she said.

A semester later, Samuels, Acting Superintendent Chris Celmer and many of their supporters argue it’s a promise that’s been largely fulfilled. They point to achievements such as the creation of an accurate budget, a districtwide elementary school curriculum and clean, well-maintained school buildings.

Still, there is much work to be done, they agreed. To help students caught in a failing system succeed, they must also find a way to effectively engage parents, retain teachers and contend with a dwindling savings account.

And after a semester under state control, some, including teachers, have found signs of progress to be frustratingly few as the district continues to be hindered by a high teacher turnover rate, poor daily attendance and a reputation that remains tainted by past failings.

Those conditions have occasionally led to the mocking of Samuels’ promised “new day,” said Jody Barksdale, a teacher and president of the Harrisburg Education Association teachers union.

Only three days before the takeover was ordered, Samuels heard a report which listed Harrisburg students’ graduation rates among the bottom 2 percent in the state. That’s in addition to low standardized test scores, which had declined “significantly” over the past four years.

While acknowledging it wouldn’t be easy, Samuels was confident last summer that improvements would be made, and be made quickly. But late last month, both Samuels and Celmer admitted that improvements have not come as quickly as they originally hoped or believed.

The main hold-up, Celmer said, is the unimaginable disorganization and mismanagement of the prior administration. The prime example, he said, were financial records missing from the district’s business office — apparently removed by someone before Samuels’ team took over.

“I just believe that the depth of the issues here really are different,” Celmer said. “In Reading, we didn’t walk into a situation where financial records were missing. We didn’t walk into a situation where we had to rebuild the entire budget basically line item by line item. ... There were pieces of the puzzle that we were able to build from.

“Here, it really was like building from the ground up.”

‘Constant stream of bills’

From that ground-up work came a 2019-20 spending plan that has a $2.6 million deficit — the best that could be done to keep schools operational while moving forward with recovery, Samuels said.

But members of the team, including Business Services Director Sandy Edling, have said that deficit budgets cannot become a trend. In fact, avoiding them is vital to ensuring that the district’s savings of about $16.2 million is not depleted.

Erasing the deficit is also key to ensuring that the district’s newly restored credit rating isn’t lowered. A better rating means lower interest rates, which will become important as officials look at refinancing existing debt — one of several financial recovery strategies officials have outlined.

Celmer said he remains optimistic that more savings will be identified in the coming months to decrease the projected deficit. There are “certainly no guarantees,” he said.

That’s because district leaders said they continue to receive unexpected bills for spending under former Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney’s administration.

“It’s like every day, especially in the beginning, there was a new surprise financially,” Samuels said. “That part was quite troubling. You can’t do a budget if you have this constant stream of bills, and I’m not talking about little bills."

Some were for tens of thousands of dollars, the school officials said.

“There are bills still trickling in and we’re still a little bit fearful of the unknowns,” Celmer said. “Have we really gotten to the bottom of the onion, so to speak, and have we peeled back all of the layers?”

‘People need to hear what the holdup is’

Throughout the hour-long conversation in SciTech, Celmer and Samuels repeatedly pointed to the prior administration to explain delays and hardships the new leadership team has faced in turning around the 6,500-student district.

But Samuels and Celmer suddenly shied away from talk of the prior administration when asked about state and federal investigations that were launched in the early days of the state takeover, after vital records and a number of computers were discovered missing from the district.

The Harrisburg School District monthly board meeting with receiver Dr. Janet Samuels was held on Monday, June 17, 2019. Sybil Knight-Burney during the board meeting.
Vicki Vellios Briner | Special to PennLiveVicki Vellios Briner | Special to PennLive

The administrators said they could not speak about the investigations. In fact, they are sick of being asked about them.

“That piece has been such a constant handicap for the district,” Samuels said. “There has been such negativity in terms of what has occurred, and I think that gets in the way of moving forward.”

Samuels has made it clear that she believes shifting conversations — and perceptions — about the district to be more positive and forward-looking is needed to build support for its recovery.

To that end, she’s talked about the need for transparency, vowing to regularly share information about what has been done and what needs to be done to move the district back to success.

But at a recent meeting of the district’s Recovery Plan Advisory Committee, one of its newest members — attorney Melanie Cook — asked if the new leadership team is being transparent enough.

The question came during a discussion of the district’s recovery plan, which is now being updated. Samuels originally planned to finish the revisions by May 31.

“I think people need to hear what the holdup is,” Cook said, urging Samuels to provide some documentation that could be shared with the public to show how much progress has been made.

“Otherwise what it sounds like is that regardless of who the players are, the ball is not being moved forward, and there is no explanation given,” Cook said. “So you’re either not accomplishing that based on the previous administration, or you’re not accomplishing it based on this one.”

Samuels again referred to the prior administration’s mismanagement and poor record-keeping that left district officials without accurate figures to plug into a revised plan.

“I am convinced that the community possibly didn’t have a broad idea of the depth and breadth of some of the things that were actually happening within the school district,” Samuels said.

Then that needs to be widely communicated, Cook said, adding that people will believe it.

Students are walked to Foose Elementary School in Harrisburg.
December 19, 2019.
Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

‘There continues to be concerns’

On a cold December morning outside of Foose Elementary School, parents walked hand-in-hand with their children, escorting them along nearby sidewalks and across painted crosswalks before watching them disappear through the building’s front doors.

Despite low temperatures that had their children wearing heavy coats and knit caps, nearly a dozen of those parents stopped to talk about receivership for a few minutes. But almost all of them admitted they hadn’t followed news about the receivership or the district’s recovery efforts. Some said they are simply hoping for the best.

That lack of attention troubles Christi’an Yellowdy, who has five children enrolled in classrooms at Foose Elementary and Rowland Academy.

“The district cannot turn around on its own and will need involvement from everyone to make a change. Being present, for a parent, doesn’t just mean physical,” she said. “It’s speaking to our children about what is expected while at school; it’s making sure they have what they need to succeed. It’s about partnering with teachers and staff to create the best plan for your child.”

Yellowdy said changes in the district have been apparent to her, specifically the introduction of new literacy materials.

“I feel the district is moving in a good direction,” she said. “It’s still early, but there have been some great changes thus far.”

That doesn’t mean that Yellowdy doesn’t have concerns. Among the issues that persist is school safety, she said, highlighting the need for a comprehensive plan to address student behavior while outlining appropriate disciplinary procedures.

“There continues to be concerns about the fights,” Yellowdy said.

Harrisburg School District held a convocation ceremony for teachers and staff at the John Harris Campus on Monday, August 19, 2019.
Vicki Vellios Briner | Special to PennLiveVicki Vellios Briner | Special to PennLive

Barksdale, the teachers’ union president, offered an in-classroom perspective. In terms of student behavior problems, she said, “there hasn’t been a whole lot of difference.”

Last spring, just weeks before the district was placed into receivership, several former teachers spoke about the circumstances that led them to resign, including a lack of support and largely unchecked student misbehavior.

Among them was a teacher who spoke about being kicked, bit, spit on, slapped and punched and described students throwing chairs and desks and fighting in the back of her classroom.

The fighting has persisted despite the state takeover, Barksdale said. Often, students fail to show up to school altogether, she said.

“Kids cut class on a regular basis. If they are not in class, they can’t learn,” she said.

Although he couldn’t provide statistics, Harrisburg police Sgt. Kyle Gautsch said there hasn’t been an increase in calls for officers to school buildings in the past semester.

“If anything I would say, only based upon me listening to the radio all day long, that the calls for service have decreased,” he said. “It appears that the current oversight is working, at least in the respect of law enforcement interactions.”

Behavior problems aren’t helped by what Barksdale said is the lack of a true mentor program to help guide teachers new to Harrisburg’s schools.

“It’s very difficult for anybody to adjust,” she said.

‘Everything is going up but our paychecks’

All of that, Barksdale said, has contributed to an extraordinary teacher-turnover rate — one that has not been helped by years of salary freezes and status quo conditions that have existed as union members attempt to negotiate a new contract amid the district’s poor financial situation.

Many teachers are finding they can go to neighboring districts and make $8,000 to $18,000 more, she said.

Contract negotiations have resumed, but Barksdale said she fears that, in the face of a budget deficit and growing operational costs, there will be few wins for teachers.

“It’s definitely scary because everything is going up but our paychecks,” she said.

Despite that, Barksdale is hopeful receivership will put the district on a path to improvement.

“It typically gets a lot worse before it gets better,” she said. “I feel like it can’t get any worse at the moment.”

Harrisburg School District held a convocation ceremony for teachers and staff at the John Harris Campus on Monday, August 19, 2019.
Vicki Vellios Briner | Special to PennLiveVicki Vellios Briner | Special to PennLive

Data related to teacher turnover, student discipline and average daily attendance was requested from district officials prior to the winter break. That information likely will be made available early in the new year, a spokeswoman said.

Since June, at least 60 teacher resignations have appeared on school board agendas for approval. Last spring, the total number of Harrisburg teachers was listed at about 540, meaning that if that number holds true, about 11 percent of teachers have resigned since June. In the past three years, 19 percent of teachers left the district, according to a report from Mass Insight Education & Research, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit hired by the state to analyze the district.

Samuels and Celmer admit teacher retention is a problem, one they hope to soon address.

That will be possible in part through ongoing union contract negotiations, Celmer said. Conversations so far have been largely positive, he said.

“We have the same goals in mind, it’s just about how do we get there? From a financial side of it, how do we do it and ensure stability and sustainability in the Harrisburg School District?” Celmer said.

But Samuels said she’s skeptical that improvements in teacher recruitment and retention can be made unless steps are taken to change the climate and the culture of the district’s schools. That includes school safety and student behavior, she said.

“Painting a more positive picture of the district is something that we also hope will attract teachers so that they know that the district is operating very, very differently,” she said. “I think candidates want to know that there is a stable school district that they can work for."

“Our employees have been through a tremendous amount of instability and change,” Celmer added. “Many of them are sticking with us through this journey and they should be commended for that.”

‘We want welcoming optics’

More changes to address climate and culture are coming, they said, explaining that many will require community partnerships — partnerships that are possible only after hours of discussion and numerous meetings with city leaders, including Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse and police Commissioner Thomas Carter.

Last month, those efforts led city council to vote for a budget that sets aside money to partially fund a school resource officer program, which will station city police officers in Harrisburg schools.

The program, which is not yet in place, has been billed as a way to introduce students to positive role models, and build relationships between local law enforcement and the wider community while providing educational opportunities and security support in schools.

Harrisburg police Officer Chris Palamara, left, and Cpl. Josh Hammer greet Foose Elementary School students as they arrive for the first day of school, August 26, 2019.
Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

While Samuels said it’s her hope that a school resource officer program will affect positive behavioral changes in school buildings, she’s repeatedly made it clear that officers will not play a punitive role. All disciplinary action will be handled within the school system, she said.

Changes already have been made in district classrooms, specifically at the elementary level, where a new districtwide math and literacy curriculum has been rolled out, ensuring that students are being taught with the same materials and lessons in each of Harrisburg’s elementary buildings. A similar curriculum overhaul in grades six through 12 is being considered, the administrators said.

That cohesion across school buildings is vital in urban districts like Harrisburg, where families may move within the city multiple times a year, Celmer said.

“We do have a transient population,” he said, especially at the elementary level.

Now those students should be able to walk into any classroom at any school in the district and rest assured that lessons are being taught with the same content at the same pace, he said.

Great care has been taken to ensure that all school buildings are welcoming to students, Samuels said. That was not true when she first took over, she said.

“To be honest with you, we were concerned in terms of the physical condition of the buildings,” she said.

Now, maintenance workers understand that floors, walls, halls and restrooms should be clean and that landscaping should be well maintained.

“We want welcoming optics with our buildings. That makes a difference when children are walking into the building. They feel a sense of pride,” she said. “It does have nexus into the classroom.”

‘Education is too important’

Earlier this season, Harrisburg’s mayor spoke about his past experiences visiting district schools, describing hallways occupied by students who seemed to wander aimlessly, without question from faculty or staff.

That was prior to the state takeover and the introduction of Samuels and her team, Papenfuse said. It also was in stark contrast to a school visit he made earlier this year.

“You could see the difference just in the halls and the look and feel of the building,” he said, describing a general sense of optimism he credits to “the belief that there is now a competent ... regime in charge.”

“They have been very responsive and very good to work with,” Papenfuse said. “I think they are making progress, and I’m really encouraged.”

Papenfuse was among a group of elected officials that called for the state takeover. It’s a group that also included Republican Sen. John DiSanto, who said he too has seen positive change, and conversations with his constituents have largely led him to believe they feel the same.

DiSanto cited the new team’s work to draft an accurate budget and to implement a series of business practices and procedures. State Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, whose office is conducting a real-time audit of the district, has also praised those steps.

But DePasquale made clear that it’s not yet time for celebration, that there is much more to be done, and DiSanto agreed, pointing specifically to teacher retention and student performance.

“Obviously, that’s the biggest — student achievement,” DiSanto said.

Student achievement also has been on Papenfuse’s mind, and while he is supportive of the receivership team, he wonders exactly how long it will take to see widespread and trackable improvements in grades and test scores.

His guess is that it will take time. That’s why he supports legislation to create a voucher system by diverting state money from Harrisburg schools to help low-income families in the district send their kids to private or out-of-district schools.

“Education is too important to deny those opportunities to anyone,” Papenfuse said.

During a news conference at Foose Elementary School, state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, here with court-appointed Receiver Janet Samuels, provides an update on his department's real-time audit of the Harrisburg School District, which is currently under state receivership and working to restore its financial stability, November 25, 2019.
Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

It’s a bill that Samuels, Celmer and the rest of the leadership team vehemently oppose, as does Depasquale.

"This bill would bleed out the Harrisburg School District and its taxpayers and could ultimately lead to the district’s collapse,” the auditor general said.

‘This isn’t a sprint’

Samuels said there are already indications of academic improvement and pointed to a list of nearly 100 seniors who had been accepted to college before the winter break. She could not immediately say whether that number exceeded previous years.

The goal is to move as many students as possible forward not only to college but into careers, to the military, to art school and to any other institutions that will put them on a track to success, the administrators said.

With that in mind, expectations need to be realistic, Samuels said. Hard work already has gone into the district’s recovery, and much more will be needed before goals are achieved, she said.

“We are talking about a district that has been in distress for over a decade,” Samuels said.

Celmer summed up the whole effort with a metaphor.

“We are running a marathon here, this isn’t a sprint. We need to make changes; we need to move quickly, but we also need to look at the long term sustainability of the district,” he said.

“The students and staff and parents in this community, they deserve that,” Samuels added.